This invention relates to document scanners and more particularly to the user interface for document scanners. Even more particularly, the invention relates to a user interface that allows a user to automatically select a region of interest from a preview scan of a document and initiate an optimized final scan of the region of interest by moving it to an application using the drag and drop feature of the Windows operating system.
Current scanner technology allows a user to capture and utilize all or portions of various scanned documents, images, objects, etc. for use within various computer applications, even when the documents are comprised of a variety of different components. A document containing text, black and white and/or color photographs, graphics, and color and black and white line art can be scanned in its entirety. Alternatively, the user may choose to select only certain portions of the original document for scanning by utilizing scanner software to select an area or particular image contained in a preview scan of the document. The selected area is then scanned to produce a final image.
The usability of existing scanning software has been hindered by the inability of users to easily move images from the scanner software to the user desktop or desired application, such as word processing or an Adobe PhotoShop(trademark) image editing type application. Typically, scanning software forces the user to either save the image as a file, copy the image to the clipboard, or return the data via a TWAIN or other industry standard inter-application communication protocol initiated scan.
It is thus apparent that there is a need in the art for an improved method or apparatus which solves the objects of the invention. The present invention meets these and other needs in the art.
This application is related to application Ser. No. 09/164/693 of Jeffrey P. Lee et al. filed Oct. 1, 1998 entitled Click and Select User Interface for Document Scanning, which is incorporated herein by reference for all that is disclosed and taught therein.
It is an aspect of the present invention to click on a selected region in a preview scan of a document and drag it to an open application or a desktop to launch an optimized final scan of the selected region.
It is another aspect of the invention to have the image data resulting from the optimized final scan automatically reside in the open application or desktop.
Yet another aspect of the invention is to update scanner software control parameters with information about the selected region to optimize the final scan of the selected region.
Still another aspect of the invention is to offer different data formats for the optimized final scan based upon the selected region type.
A further aspect of the invention is to allow the open application to query the scanner software to determine if it can accept drop input of the selected region in an offered format before executing the optimized final scan.
A still further aspect of the invention is to format the data from the optimized final scan into the format requested by the open application.
The above and other aspects of the invention are accomplished in a user interface for scanner software that allows a preview scan of a document to be presented to the user in a variable resolution preview window in a computer monitor. The user may then click on a point within a region of interest in the preview scan data in the variable resolution preview window. Based on the characteristics of the data represented at the click point, an area is determined that encompasses the click point and the neighboring points that have similar characteristics to that of the click point. This area is then classified by type based on the characteristics of the data represented within the area, such as text, gray scale image, color image, or black and white image. A selection marker is then automatically displayed around the area as a first estimate of what the user intended by making the mouse click at the click point.
The selection marker may be a bounding box rectangular in shape. For non-rectangular xe2x80x9classoxe2x80x9d regions, image analysis software may be applied, automatically tracing around the lasso region of interest. Portions of the scanned document that lie outside the selection marker are grayed out. Based on the determination of the type of area, adjustments are made automatically to data type, exposure, color, resolution, and sharpness settings that normally would have to be made manually by the user in prior art systems.
If the selection marker automatically generated does not represent the image of interest desired by the user, the user can adjust the size of the region of interest to include more area or include less area in several different ways. One such way is by dragging the selection area handles appropriately, expanding or contracting the selected area. Or, the user may simultaneously click on a point and hold down a control key on a keyboard, to either expand the region or image of interest to include additional area, or contract the region or image of interest to exclude area already selected. The user may also right click on the mouse to pop up a context menu, and select an expand selection option or select a contract selection option from the menu. In addition, a different region of interest can be selected by the user by clicking in an unselected area of the variable resolution preview scan, and dragging the mouse to create a rectangular area bounded by a selection marker.
Based on the type of image, windows having tools for adjusting various aspects of the selected area are automatically enabled or disabled from user input. Once the region of interest is properly selected, and any adjustments have been made, the user can use a mouse to drag and drop the selected area onto the desktop, a writeable folder, or onto an open application to launch an optimized final scan, or re-scan, of the selected area. After the optimized final scan, the resulting image data resides in the desktop, folder, in a file, or within the open application. Alternatively, the user may utilize pull down menus or buttons to launch the optimized final scan. However, if the pull down menu is used, save to file, copy to clipboard, and print are the only options available. Thus, the resulting image data will not automatically appear in an open application utilizing this option.